Kevin Welslau

Very well known in the Belgian reggae scene as MC but his number one priority is painting. Be sure to visit his Tumblr page to see his beautiful paintings. Monkeys, nature, life and death are topics which recur a lot in his work. But always in a surrealistic world as seen through his eyes.

He created the logo for I-Topia and Three last designs for the Roots & Culture events in Antwerp were also painted by him. You can see them on:

This “african dub” design is his first contribution forprint on Textile. More to follow!

Philip Paquet

Philip Paquet : illustrator, comics artist, tattoo artist, painter, musician…but above all storyteller.
He published his first comic, a short story, in 1998. Since then he has created many more.
Variation is important, got to keep on moving.

P is best known for his Louis Armstrong graphic novel :
“This book feels as personal to Philip Paquet as the words to Satchmo himself. Paquet’s unique watercolor style gives Louis Armstrong an unmistakable sense of nostalgia that reaches deep into the memory of a great man and gives a certain clarity to an already distinctive voice.” Allen Hui.

Juli Jupter

Juli Jupter
Born and raised in Ilheus, Bahia, Brasil 1988.
Juli is a self taught artist with a big urge to express herself. Through drawing, dancing, singing and making music.
Coming from a home schooled base everything she makes is based on talent, the urge to perfection and an obsession to be a full-time artist. She is an artist in many ways with lots of promises towards the future.
In her paintings you see fairy and idyllic characters but in the details you can see also the hard life she comes from. With the typical, colorful South-American style the paintings look like they have been taken straight out of a fairy tale.
For I-Topia she delivered a drawing of a drummer which relates perfect with what we stand for. The drum, music coming straight from the heart. That’s why we called it “Heart, drum, beat”
If you want to order this drawing on paper print or an original painting you can get in contact with Juli Jupter by clicking on her name.

Griet vingerhoets

Griet vingerhoets is passionated about drawing and makes art with all materials available. Wood, paper, metal…

she spends a lot of her free time on making most beautiful work. being Part of the first i-topia expo Griet made wooden figures in the shape of animals and used them to make a holder for old fashioned music cassettes. Also a big recycled wooden circle where she burned on her inspiration for this T-shirt.

This work is called: “promised land“

You can see and buy the cassette holders in our

webshop! You can also send request to order your own animal by sending mail to itopiawear@Gmail.com

Griet will Get in touch with you and see what the possibilities are.

Pictures of her other works can be seen on:

facebook.com/itopiawear

Ethel Laka

Ethel Laka

is a female Tattoo artist in South Africa, Johannesburg.

She specializes in fineArts as her speciality and proceeded to take up tattooing as a career from around 2004. She owns and runs her own professional studio at home.

She have been part builder of the KebraEthiopia sound system sinceits inception and has a deep loveand
passion for Reggae music and Sound System Culture.

This has been a close to heart project as it infuses her love of art and creativity within the Reggae movement as she has come to know it in her homestead, deeply rooted in daily live.

RESISTANCE!
Weaffirm our cultural essenceand spirit with these T-shirt prints in Association with I-Topia. As is our sound system ethos, a continuation and unrelenting challenge to systematic oppression.

Thereby using Reggae music as an imperative means to black consciousness, social graceand humanism.

Gorka González Delgado

Gorka González Delgado,

is a youngdesigner from Basque Country, in the north of Spain, close to the french border.Designer on his own, and cofounder of the Gudaridub community in spain. Related to reggae and especially, with the Spanish sound system culture. he is Known for his sound system vectors throughout the planet and his photoshop montages, relating famous people to this dubculture. he focuses mainly on the design of posters, logos and other types of graphic works, generally related to reggae.

For i-topia he made a design called “steppa dub” which was inspired by the open air, free soundsystem sessions they organise on the steppe (or mountains) in spain. They take a generator and soundsystem and have their free dances. Music for the people!

Kads is at the center of the Japanese reggae painting scene and is a pioneer of live painting in the reggae world. Kads first encountered reggae in the late 80’s. He has been loving reggae music and creating art for over 20 years. While he was still in school, he began working as a graphic designer in Tokyo. Reggae music started to influence his work, and the rebel culture that forms the base of reggae music began to define his work in particular.

In 1988 he began working as an artist. He painted murals and combined live performances of painting with reggae music.

In 1992 he went to Jamaica for two months. The art and music encountered on the trip had a large influence on his work. Meeting Rastafarians during his time in Jamaica imbued his art with a clear direction.

In 1994 and 1995 Kads took a trip to Ethiopia and India. He created a mural at a Rastafarian commune in Shashemane, Ethiopia that is still there today. Back in Japan he had an art exhibition from where his Nyahbinghi oil painting spread around the world in poster form.

Kads continued holding exhibitions of his reggae art, giving live painting performances and doing graphic art for album and CD covers, logos, posters, and clothing. Through this work his name has become known throughout Japan.

Painting in front of an audience while listening to reggae music is Kads’ original style. He is a pioneer of live painting performances in Japan. In 2008, he created a series of popular live painting events called Live Painting SESSION.

In 2009 he published a picture book called Go To Jamaica based on his trip. The first printing sold out in Japan.

In the future he plans to give live painting performances overseas and publish a book of his graphic art that he has accumulated over the past 20 years.

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Kads MIIDA is an artist who works with the theme of “to be free, to be a part of nature” to produce colorful works brimming with vitality.

He started to work as an illustrator during the latter half of the 1980s, while studying at Tokyo Zokei University. The core of his creative activity is painting—oil painting, acrylic painting, prints, and murals—although it runs the whole gamut. He also creates products such as clothing and household items; designs artwork for shop interiors, logos, and advertising; performs live painting in collaboration with a variety of musicians; and publishes picture books based on his own experiences.

While Kads MIIDA’s focus was on traveling overseas until the 2011 earthquake, he has since turned his attention to Japan, traveling the entire country to observe it afresh. Working with people who he has met in various places, he is striving to produce works that bear a message for the next generation. His 2013 solo exhibition, “Future Souvenir Exhibition,” focused on collaboration with Japan’s traditional craftsmen working in media such as lacquer or indigo dyeing.

In terms of painting, while a great deal of his production has worked with Japanese themes, he has recently adopted techniques from genres such as nihonga—Japanese style painting—as he works to expand his expressive range and sublimate his own concepts further.

Creating something unique he learned from his father, he was chef de cuisine in his own restaurant and Nicola’s major source of inspiration. Nicola looked up to his father because he was always looking, searching for something new and fresh and like this see his customers leave the table happy and satisfied.

With this as an example Nicola tries to push his boundaries with every new assignment. Looking for new combinations of forms, colours and thoughts.

Designing is a big part of his happiness and sense of freedom. It allows him to keep on experimenting.

As Nicola says:

“As a graphic designer you have to find yourself in the center of society to be able to look further and think beyond the rigid mindset. Looking for a balance between form and content and feel responsible for the assignments from different employers. A large part of my creativity you have to connect with serendipity, with this i want to say that sometimes you are looking for something specific but eventually you find something unexpected and use this in the assignment.”

If you are looking for a graphic designer and like the work of Nicola?